If you have read my previous article, you would have known youth players are trash defenders, reasonable declarers, and aggressive bidders.

Here are reasons for why youth players focus the most on conventions!

( Disclaimer: please don’t think I think this for every youth players. Remember, this is just an article meant to bring joy and chuckles and guffaws).

(ps: I myself am a youth player. Read my profile. And yes, if you are wondering, I am Harrison Luba's partner. Maybe that would be a sufficient reason to follow me ).

Swag

It is fun and seems cool when partner makes a bid and then you alert it, and the opponents ask what it is, and you be like, “3-1-(5-4) shape.” Then the opponents are like “Whoa. You guys are pro.”

Something is better than nothing

Youth players think they are accomplishing a lot by pulling out a card, and it having a meaning.

Tools in the toolbox

As mentioned in my first article, youth players love to bid. Thus they want things to help them bid successfully. These things are conventions.

Nothing else is better

Youth players really don’t care about defending much. They think it is boring, unimportant. No one has ever gotten any fame, reverence, glory, and girlfriends by being a good defender. This is partly because one also needs partner to be a good defender for one’s defense to be successful. Defending is also very hard, especially for youth players, as they lack the experience to defend properly by being able to count and visualize hands.

This leaves bidding and declaring for things to focus on. Declaring is fine and all, but sometimes, it gets a bit dry. All these safety plays, what if this guy has a void, what if trump breaks badly, should I do this finesse or that, blah blah blah blah blah. Sometimes, declaring gives one headache when a hand presents declarer with so many ways of playing. Not only that, it is hard to practice declaring. Books with hand diagrams and explanation of the cards being played tend to be dry and hard to follow. It is hard to practice declaring, as you need people to defend against you. Once you are done with the Bridge Master hands in BBO, you have to pay .25 BBO money to do Bridge Master 2000. And youth players don’t have that much dough.

However, bidding and conventions are fun and easy to learn. You can learn it by yourself, and then excitedly explain it to your bridge partner.

Sadness

Youth players will soon realize how inaccurate, muddled, inefficient, and flawed their bidding systems are. They want to be able to stop being wrecked by aggressive bidding. They want to stop missing games and slams or over-extending. And the solution lies in conventions.

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